WASHINGTON – One word: Joementum.
The former vice president had a blowout night on Super Tuesday, seemingly reversing his slow start to the primary season, where his electability was questioned following fourth and fifth place finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, respectively.
Biden started the night winning Virginia and went on to sweep the states in the South, jumping out to a lead ahead of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ in the national delegate hunt and essentially turning the primary into a two-person race. At 2 a.m. EST, it was announced Biden had won Texas.
Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg made his debut on ballots across the country and won the American Samoa caucuses, but failed to win any states.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, both of whom are still running to be the Democratic nominee, failed to seal any wins and now trail by a substantial margin.
As of 2 a.m. EST, Biden had won 9 states, Sanders had won 4 states and Bloomberg had won one U.S. territory.
Here are key takeaways from Super Tuesday night:
Biden roars back after South Carolina
Biden looked like the comeback kid, despite facing weeks of questions over whether he can gain the momentum to take on Sanders, the frontrunner in delegates ahead of Super Tuesday.
As of 2 a.m., Biden’s delegate count sat is at 450. Sanders is standing at 376. There are 3,979 pledged delegates from all states and territories, and a candidate needs 1,991 of them to win in the first vote at the Democratic National Convention.
After Biden’s blowout win in South Carolina, Biden’s campaign saw a flood of support for his campaign. Former mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar both dropped out before Super Tuesday and endorsed the former vice president.
Black voters, who pushed Biden to victory in South Carolina, were also the key voting bloc behind Biden’s wins in several states like North Carolina, Virginia and Alabama. According to exit polls, 63% of black voters in Virginia supported Biden compared to 18% who backed Sanders. North Carolina saw similar numbers, with 63% of black voters backing Biden and only 16% supporting Sanders. In Alabama, 72% of black voters supported Biden compared to 12% for Sanders.
In general, black voters are one of the most important voting blocs for the Democratic Party. Biden’s dominance with black voters could spell trouble for Sanders going forward.
Biden’s wins also were fueled mostly by moderate and conservative voters, according to exit polls. In addition, voters who made up their mind in the last couple of days overwhelmingly went to Biden.
The blowout win was seemingly unimaginable before the South Carolina primary, when Biden was struggling to keep up in polls with Sanders and Bloomberg, who were both campaigning heavily in Super Tuesday states. Biden never even visited or opened any field offices in several of the states he won, such as Minnesota. He only held one rally in Virginia, where he won overwhelmingly.
Sanders’ rise interrupted
Sanders did seal one big win Tuesday night: California.
According to exit polling, Sanders had a huge margins of support with almost all voter groups in California, with the exception of black voters and voters 65 and over. He won with the largest voting block, white voters, and overwhelmingly was supported by Latino voters — a key group the campaign was trying to appeal to.
Sanders had the largest share of Latino voter support in both California and Texas. He was supported by 55% with Latino voters in California and 45% in Texas, according to exit polls.
More:Many young voters sat out Super Tuesday, contributing to Bernie Sanders’ losses
But other than that, the Vermont senator’s finishes in several states fell flat.
He lost Minnesota, a state he won in 2016 and rallied in Monday night ahead of Super Tuesday. He was also endorsed by several Minnesota officials, including Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Sanders drew a crowd of 13,000 in Boston Saturday, but failed to win Massachusetts, and he also lost Oklahoma. Both were states he won in 2016 and both went to Biden this year.
A Bloomberg bust
Bloomberg picked up his first delegates on Super Tuesday, but after spending over a quarter billion dollars on advertising in Tuesday’s primary states, his delegate haul so far was a disappointing blow.
Bloomberg saw a win in the American Samoa caucus, the single U.S. territory to participate in Super Tuesday. He received five pledged delegates out of the six available, but he didn’t win any other contests.
Gabbard, who is of Samoan descent, saw her one delegate win come from American Samoa. It is the only delegate she has won in the primary so far.
Bloomberg also picked up delegates in eight other states.
“No matter how many delegates we win tonight, we have done something no one thought was possible,” Bloomberg told supporters Tuesday evening. “In just three months, we’ve gone from 1% in the polls to being a contender for the Democratic nomination.”
Bloomberg’s campaign spent 60 times what Biden did in states the former vice president won Tuesday night, NBC News reported.
In Virginia alone, the Bloomberg campaign had opened seven field offices and hired more than 80 staffers to canvass the state, which was also bombarded with millions in dollars of advertising, mostly on radio and television. But Bloomberg fell far behind in that state, coming in fourth out of five candidates with 100% reporting in a state that Biden won. He snagged just 9.7% support in Virginia.
Warren continues to lag, loses home state
Warren’s campaign is facing a disheartening finish in Super Tuesday states, picking up just a couple dozen delegates so far and coming in a distant third in her home state of Massachusetts.
Warren fell behind both Biden and Sanders in Massachusetts, where she serves as a United States senator, and she also lost to them in the state where she was born and raised, Oklahoma. With just under 80% of precincts reporting, Warren had 20.7% of the Massachusetts vote, with Sanders at 27.3% and the former vice president declared the winner with 33.6% support.
Not only did Warren not win a state on Tuesday, the senator did not place in the top two in any state either. Warren, who along with Sanders represents the more progressive wing of the Democratic race, has steadily lost support from the left as Sanders has surged.
But she indicated to supporters that she is looking ahead to later primaries; at a campaign event in Detroit early on Tuesday evening, she said that race predictions are not reliable.
“Predictions are a terrible business. Pundits have gotten it wrong over and over,” Warren said. “Cast a vote that will make you proud. Vote from your heart. And vote for the person who you think will make the best president of the United States”
Contributing: Nicholas Wu, Joey Garrison
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/03/04/super-tuesday-takeaways-biggest-night-election-2020/4943582002/
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